What car for sub £3k?!

sheriffwoody

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So I am now having a change of heart and moving away from the idea of buying a 12-24 month old car (skoda superb 272, skoda Octavia vrs were the main runners) and being stuck with a circa £400 a month pcp for 48 months - mainly due to personal circumstances whereby it might not be the wisest move for me to be tied up like that.

So I am now thinking of buying a car for £3k or below, to see me through for a few years and THEN I can finally have my new/nearly new car. A £2-5-3k car now would mean I can but it outright and not have to be tied in for years, but I appreciate it is going to be a lot older and come with a lot more miles and generally not be as nice/as fast/as stylish etc.

So what would you go for if you had a max limit of £3k to spend?
It needs to offer plenty of boot space, so a large hatch or estate would tick the box. I can’t go for something like a fiesta or a corsa, simply not enough room.
It HAS to have isofix points in the rear seats
Needs to be reliable
Doesn’t have to break any land speed records, but 0-60 in under 10 seconds would be nice.
I think ideally petrol - I have just had better experiences with petrol in the past (less that goes wrong).

Any thoughts?
 
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Ford

I sold my st and we upgraded the mrs car. I took hers

2007 1.6 petrol for cmax 125k on the clock, full service history. Has been a belting car. Isofix rear seats, and has only needed the basics in terms of repairs.
 
Honda Civic/ Kia Ceed or a Volvo estate would probably be my picks. I'm not sure what 3k gets you these days since the pandemic though. Used car prices have gone crazy.
 
Honda Civic/ Kia Ceed or a Volvo estate would probably be my picks. I'm not sure what 3k gets you these days since the pandemic though. Used car prices have gone crazy.
That’s half the reason for looking in the bargain bin. Used car prices have gone up thousands at what I was looking at before. I am loathed to pay £500 a month for the same car as I could have for it for £380 less than a year ago!

I have found a nice looking Volvo V50 T5 2.5 petrol estate for under £3k. Looks in good condition, but know limited else about it.

Reliable? Semi good on fuel (or kidding myself)?
 
Go on, you know you want to...

I was a bit surprised at the price to be honest. I paid 4K for a 12 plate one 3 years ago (similar mileage but diesel) so would have thought 3K would have got you younger than an 09.

(Geek note: they've re-badged the boot and bonnet with the newer black Skoda badges, that model should still be green like the steering wheel badge.)
 
That’s half the reason for looking in the bargain bin. Used car prices have gone up thousands at what I was looking at before. I am loathed to pay £500 a month for the same car as I could have for it for £380 less than a year ago!

I have found a nice looking Volvo V50 T5 2.5 petrol estate for under £3k. Looks in good condition, but know limited else about it.

Reliable? Semi good on fuel (or kidding myself)?
I really don't blame you. Been looking to update my car since last summer myself but there's no way I'm paying these crazy prices.

That Volvo is a very good car and as long as its a decent example, I think you'll be very happy with how they drive/handle. Just make sure it has some decent history so you know its been looked after.
Fuel wise it won't be great though, depends what you're used to i suppose. Another thing to check is the tax bracket, as I think they're over £500 per year.
 
Go on, you know you want to...

I was a bit surprised at the price to be honest. I paid 4K for a 12 plate one 3 years ago (similar mileage but diesel) so would have thought 3K would have got you younger than an 09.

(Geek note: they've re-badged the boot and bonnet with the newer black Skoda badges, that model should still be green like the steering wheel badge.)

It does say it’s limited edition - which edition I don’t know. And seems to have some mods done to it (dump valve etc) - so would prefer untouched I think….
 
I really don't blame you. Been looking to update my car since last summer myself but there's no way I'm paying these crazy prices.

That Volvo is a very good car and as long as its a decent example, I think you'll be very happy with how they drive/handle. Just make sure it has some decent history so you know its been looked after.
Fuel wise it won't be great though, depends what you're used to i suppose. Another thing to check is the tax bracket, as I think they're over £500 per year.
A quick Google earlier seemed to suggest some owners were in the circa £300 bracket for the same car, so would need to check
 
Think it’s over priced then, or just a sign of the times?
All cars are over priced now. My girlfriend just paid £3,300 for a 2011 Suzuki Swift. Wasn't even my money and it hurt me 😂. She had just passed her test though and was desperate to get driving so had no choice really.
 
A quick Google earlier seemed to suggest some owners were in the circa £300 bracket for the same car, so would need to check
The year the car is registered can make a difference. Definitely worth checking out before you commit to anything.
 
yeah, that’s the Volvo I was on about. That’s a lot of tax a year!!
 
It does say it’s limited edition - which edition I don’t know. And seems to have some mods done to it (dump valve etc) - so would prefer untouched I think….

That leather looks special edition , my seats are a mix of leather, alcantara and fabric. Mine was a private sale and I think I got a bit of a bargain. Anyway, was just an example that you could get an older VRS within your budget.
 
How are you getting on with your vrs? Enjoying it, giving you any headaches?
 
Wouldn't touch that volvo

Its the same engine that was in my focus st, you will be getting around 25mg on vpower. Which js what it should be run on, milage wise its in prime cambelt replacement. Brakes are expensive to replace as there larger

Also the auto box in volvos is a known pig and tends to need rebuilding too.

My dad had a xc90 which had the auto box repaired twice

He has a v70 d5 now with 180k on and that drives like a dream, but still needed £1000 of injectors.

Sadly the used car market is crazy atm. So you will pay over the odds unless you find a doris selling off a low milage honda jazz
 
Wouldn't touch that volvo

Its the same engine that was in my focus st, you will be getting around 25mg on vpower. Which js what it should be run on, milage wise its in prime cambelt replacement. Brakes are expensive to replace as there larger

Also the auto box in volvos is a known pig and tends to need rebuilding too.

My dad had a xc90 which had the auto box repaired twice

He has a v70 d5 now with 180k on and that drives like a dream, but still needed £1000 of injectors.

Sadly the used car market is crazy atm. So you will pay over the odds unless you find a doris selling off a low milage honda jazz
We've had loads of Volvos over the years and never had any issues although admittedly they were no near as old as what the OP is looking at.

Agree with the Dorris comment though lol. Its the only way I'd buy currently unless really desperate.
Trouble is even if you managed to get Dorris's Jazz, you'd then have the catalytic converter thieves on your doorstep 😫. Got the same issue with the girlfriends Suzuki Swift as well and it is a pain having to be careful where and how you park it.
 
Can't go too far wrong with a Ford Focus - 1.8 or 2L petrol engines are reliable but not the best on fuel.

If you weren't worried about ULEZ and go diesel, you could get a Skoda Octavia or Golf (both available in estate style) 1.9tdi pd which are pretty bombproof and good on fuel.
 
How are you getting on with your vrs? Enjoying it, giving you any headaches?
Absolutely love it. 50mpg+ and goes like stink if you welly it. It's got the DSG gearbox with flappy paddles and Sports Mode but I just leave it in D and is fast enough for me :). I've got the Estate version so it's great when we go camping. The previous owner used to do 20-30K a year in it, I do less than 10% of that so it's enjoying an easy retirement as it were. Sailed through the last 3 MOTs with only a rear tail light needing changing :) No DPF issues either considering the low miles it's now doing. I think by the time I got it anything that could wear at had been changed at least once so it drives like new.
 
I am now thinking of buying a car for £3k or below, to see me through for a few years and THEN I can finally have my new/nearly new car.

As above I'd recommend looking at either the Skoda Octavia estate or the Golf MkV estate or hatch not sure what kind of SEAT Leon you'd get of a similar age but it will be almost the same car - along with an Audi A3 but they'll be at a premium for the badge.

I had a '58 MkV Golf GTi for many years - not much went wrong with it in that time.
I traded it for £3.5 with 110K on the clock. There was no indication it was getting worn out but I fancied a change.

At that price point you're really going to have to go on the individual car. How it's been serviced, owned and driven. I wouldn't be scared of a higher mileage VAG car as long as it's not had a string of owners. But any £3K car might dump you with an expensive bill so keep that in mind.

One thing to be very aware of is Octavias are very popular with taxi companies. That speaks to their reliability but watch what you're buying.
 
No laughing OK!
Nissan Mirca SR160.............

Will put a smile your face! Its like driving a buggy at high speed.

:)
 
need something much bigger than a micra unfortunately
Then I would go Fabia 2015 onwards, around 3.5k! Solid, cheap to run and keep and the new modern styling looks great. Much better than the drab looking previous models (I just never liked the front end until the facelift)... defo my next car..
 
Gotta go Skoda, half the price of the Germans that supply the parts and beats them in reliability on all the charts and polls. It's basically a different badge but nearly everything is the same.
 

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